Prayer-Filled Bedside Vigil For Plane Crash Victim Battling For Life

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – Richard Pierce has kept a constant vigil at his wife’s bedside since she was pulled from the flaming wreckage of a plane crash in Riverside.

It’s a vigil filled with hopes and prayers.

“I’m terrified that she won’t make it,” he told KPIX 5. “But I’m putting all my faith in God and I believe she is going to pull through and we’re going to have a home.”

It has been week since firefighters pulled Joanne Stacey Pierce through a bedroom window after she was ejected from a private plane carrying and her parents and two other family friends that crash into a Riverside neighborhood shortly after takeoff.

The group was returning to San Jose from watching Pierce’s daughter, Brooke, take part in a cheerleading competition.

She suffered third-degree burns over 90 percent of her body and underwent surgery. Both her legs have been amputated and she has yet to begin to talk.

Her mother, 67-year-old Dana Hijazi, was killed along with her stepfather 83-year-old Nouri Hijazi and family friend 22-year-old Adine Ferales.

Another family friend – Adine’s mother Sylvia Ferales — was found on the lawn near the wreckage. Neighbors helped firefighters to pull her across the street, away from the burning homes. She was being treated for possible airway burns.